Friday October 8, 2010 Meeting
IMPROVISATION and COMPOSITION in the PRIVATE LESSON: POINTS to PONDER
Presented by MIRIAM HENDERSON ELEY
Believing that everyone has an innate curiosity and ability to create from his imaginations, private lessons provide teachers and students a golden opportunity to explore the art of improvisation and composition at the piano. Improvisation can offer students a chance to discover the various elements of sound and to create unexpected, imaginative musical ideas. This session will briefly summarize an approach to improvisation that may be used in private or group lessons and applied in many ways. This presentation will focus on a process by which music is spontaneously created at the piano. In addition, hearing examples of students’ completed compositions will demonstrate how they learn to expand their ideas, analyze, revise, notate and perform their creations. Artistic, musical and pedagogical benefits of such an approach are numerous, leading to interactive discussion on improvising and composing in the private lesson — and beyond!
Miriam Eley maintains an active membership in New Jersey Music Teachers Association, American College of Musicians, The Steinway Society and is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda. She is an active adjudicator, a published composer, and has performed as a piano soloist, chamber musician, and accompanist to her husband, baritone Elem Eley.
Currently Ms. Eley is a Master Faculty member of the piano department at Westminster Conservatory of Music in Princeton, NJ and maintains a private teacher studio in her home. She has served on the Westminster faculty for over 20 years. In 1995, Ms. Eley was appointed to the faculty of Westminster Choir College of Rider University as Adjunct Assistant Professor of piano and teaches in the secondary piano program there.